Five years ago, much of the American public bought into the “new” era of American politics and thrust Barack Obama into office.

For many citizens the concept of “Hope and Change” resonated strongly, in contrast to the jaded view that many hold of our public officials. We were in the midst of a burgeoning financial crisis and in the middle of two wars. Many believed the election of our first African-American president could very well usher in a new era of American politics marked by the two major parties working together. While Obama clearly had his worshipers on the left enraptured by his message, there was also a large swath of moderate Americans who bought into the vision that Obama so eloquently projected.

A half a decade later, it’s hard to find any true believers of Obama’s original rhetoric. One of the core concepts of the Obama story that put him in the White House was idea that as an outsider he would cut through the various special interest groups and abuses of power and represent the will of the people in reshaping Washington. Many argued at the time and will argue now that this is a battle that may be impossible to win due to how the system has been set up.

Of course Obama will always have his endless supporters on the left and in the MSM that will reliably work to dismiss any scandal as nothing more than partisan Republican politics. What the lefty elites are missing, and why the current IRS scandal is resonating with the American public, is the bigger issue at hand: We Americans are forgiving people, but we are also people who understand how the system works. It’s easy to forgive the mistakes of a few people who may have abused their power. What really riles up the electorate is an institutionalized abuse of power. The IRS scandal is the epitome of a large scale abuse of power. The White House spin machine immediately attempted to paint this scandal as the work of a few “rogue” agents out of a solitary Midwest office, making the scandal within the scandal the White House’s pathetic attempt to marginalize this issue.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan captured the essence of the damage to the Democratic Party and the White House when she wrote that the

“dreadful thing about this scandal, what makes it ominous, is that this is the elites versus regular citizens. It’s the mighty versus normal people. It’s the all-powerful directors of the administrative state training their eyes and moving on uppity and relatively undefended Americans.”

This IRS scandal is exactly why conservatives and libertarians fear big government. It’s people with a tremendous amount of power abusing their power to achieve political goals. It’s also a real government body that can do real harm and damage the lives of American citizens. The fact that this damage was done in the interest of liberal politics is revolting. So now we have high level IRS officials taking the fifth in front of congress. We have reports of the wife of the acting IRS Director leading and participating in Occupy Wall Street. We have endless accounts of a real and systematic targeting of conservatives that went beyond the simple targeting of tea party groups. For Americans who value freedom it’s the worst nightmare.

Of course Barack Obama would rather play the part of the Ostrich, putting his head in the sand and denying any knowledge of the situation. That could very well be true. Still, he is the chief executive and is in charge of the IRS. These events happened under his watch and this scandal demands a real investigation. The White House spin control can only go so far and the scandals are beginning to pile up. With the Department of Justice going after press freedom the gloves are off. The White House now has to answer to an increasingly skeptical public and White House press corps. The President who bragged on the campaign trail about his ability to understand policy and “do your job better than you can” needs to step up and do his job. The excuse that he can’t control such as massive group is not enough.

About Irvine Valkyrie

Irvine Valkyrie is Katherine Daigle, the once and future Irvine mayoral candidate, an independent-minded Republican who is aligned with neither of the two dominant Irvine political cliques.

17 Comments

“So we begin to see the actual truth (and where it usually is, Page A14): the IRS was rightly scrutinizing a whole slew of new groups claiming to be all about “social welfare” and checking to see how politicized they were – on both sides. Most of those on the progressive side were seeking 501(c)3s – not 501(c)4s – so the parallel isn’t exact. But it sure suggests nothing of any malign nature here.”

(I’m not sure: should I address you as Katherine, Valkyrie, Val, Irv, or IV?)

Regardless, you may have missed my piece from last week. There is not “ongoing scandal.” Issa’s case fell apart because he was “massaging the evidence,” taking advantage of the good will of good people like you to spread his lies. I hope that his behavior offends you.

In fact, after repeated requests to the former publisher to have a sports section here (because so much of the bullshit here is just silly) I watched a great story of hope and change this month in Omaha, with MANY MANY OC kids It looks like So Cal will bring home a CWS championship thanks to some of these kids:

Yes I did catch your piece and I did read about Mr. Issa case, however, I never believed in “Hope and Change” and I never will.

I do respect you and I enjoy reading your brilliant thoughts.

There are far too many scandals and Obama Administration is right (left) in the middle of it and he is talking today about global warming, are you kidding me, outrageous.

We have so many people out of work including myself and so many people living well below the poverty line. This country needs focus, we need to decide, are we a country of handouts or a country of strength, leadership and fortitude.

I do not agree with Mr. Obama and I did not vote for him and I am very sad, angry and sorry he was elected for a 2nd term.

However, what is done is done, and what we can expect from the other side will be interesting in the coming few years, Hillary and……………?

*You do not agree! Viola! We would have never known that. Thanks for the clarification. Too many people speak in riddles nowadays. All in all, we can surely say that we are assuming that John McCain and Sarah Palin would have been your first picks….five years ago. Then last year you opted for the Gabriel Angel guy and his pal young Eddie Munster.

Hmmmm. Good grief what ever happened to Senator George Allen, Mayor Rudy Guiliani and even Jeb Bush? Your blinders must have been askew as you entered the final furlong. So amazing that just the word “Benghazi” gets people to jump up and down and clang their cymbols together…..just like the monkey with the organ grinder.

Meanwhile, we lost 9 dead Americans in Afghanistan this week via IED’s and Green on Blue and Taliban Bad Guys. We are working on taking out more bad guys with drones to reply – if they don’t shape up and negotiate in Kabul later this week.

In the meantime, President Obama is kicking butt and taking names. We won’t even bother to mention the 100 incredible things the President has done in the last two weeks.

You can vote for Rand Paul and Marco Rubio in 2016. See how many votes might they get against almost any Democrat they put up….much less Hillary or Joe Biden.

Partisan politics works when you need to spend other people’s money. It just doesn’t work much – if you actually want to accomplish something. We need Rand Paul to put his Border Patrol Cap on and go down to Tucson and wait to see how many Drug Cartel members he can arrest….before they get him.

Meanwhile, let’s just close our eyes and pretend 11 to 20 million people do not exist. Beam you up Scottie! Of course, that was our favorite quote from Congressman James Traficant. He was fighting the IRS before it was cool.

I think Snowden is a hero! I am thrilled other countries are giving the USA “the finger”…Its about time! I am sorry to break the news to some … America is no longer #1 and other countries are tired of being pushed around by us. Who do we think we are? Dropping bombs on whomever we like… in the name of our National Security? We blame China and others for hacking into our secure sites and we do the same thing to them. Talk about hypocrisy! Our government leaders have shown their true colors and America chooses to pretend its not happening. We are getting screwed by all parties on a daily basis. I think Obama betrayed us and fell in line with the “good ole boys club” as soon as he took the oath-of-office. The IRS getting bonuses? Who do they think they are? Bank of America? Has anyone read the history of Rome?

*Our President is kicking butt. He is doing more in one day than most have ever done in their entire time in office. His recent trip to Africa is historic. While the press was focusing on Mandala…….the President was making deals with the Dark Continent for years to come. Meanwhile, he made a special deal with the Aussies and Kiwi’s and the whole group of Asian Tigers …….he is hugely – the Business President. It was great
to see George and Laura come along and help out along the way. We still love George and Laura bunches. They are everything that G.H.W.B and Barb were not.

Hope? Change? Yeah….it’s happening – no matter how long Fox News Debriefs or is that called “Pants-zing the American people” about Benghazi?